The Beginning of the End
by WhichCat
Summary: Christine is a scientist searching for a cure. Steve is an Alpha wanting to keep his pack alive. He is part of the answer to her problems and she is a distraction from his duty. Post-Apocalyptic, Science Fiction, ABO Dynamics AU. Deals with pregnancy and miscarriage. You can also find me and my writing on Tumblr at captialrogers.
1. Chapter 1

Out of everything that happened when going topside, Christine hated wearing the confining and humid hazmat suit that she as forced to wear. She looked up to the ceiling of the bouncing truck as best she could before closing her eyes against the orange light of day that filtered through the reinforced windows that surrounded her. The Doctor had promised herself that she wouldn't venture up unless it was absolutely necessary. That's how much she hated the suit.

Suddenly, the truck came to a stop and the military personnel around her gripped their guns tighter before the back door was opened and they left, single file. Per usual, the woman as the last out of the truck, being helped down by their commander. "This is where our guys said the disturbance was. Said that they couldn't find any of the infected, but there's something I think you should see Doc." The man said, leading her to a cordoned off area.

"If it wasn't the Infected, then what was it?" Christine asked, shouldering her field kit. She turned to look in the direction that the commander had gestured towards and noticed that it wasn't exactly cordoned off so much as it was surrounded by military personnel. She stopped when she saw what they had surrounded, or rather who they had surrounded. "There's no way that…" Looking back at the Commander, Christine shook her head in disbelief, "Something must have happened, Commander Thomson, so you better tell me right now if your men have…"

"My men haven't touched him. He was like that when we came to investigate." Commander Thomson adjusted the weapon on his chest, "As much as we wanted to." He mumbled.

The Doctor shook her head, "You're a piece of work, Commander Thomson." Without waiting for a reply, the woman made her way towards the half circle of men stopping when she was standing beside one of the soldiers. "How long has he been on the defensive?" She asked placing her field kit onto the dusty ground, kneeling in front of it.

"For an hour or so, Doc. I've never seen one so..."

"Intimating?" Christine finished, opening the hard case and reaching for her tranquillizer gun. "Well, soldier, you've got him cornered, what more did you expect?" As she was placing a dart into the gun, she saw something flicker in and out of her peripheral. Christine's head snapped up, scanning the area for anything that the soldiers might have missed. She stood quickly and moved forward, breaking the line of military men.

"Doc, that's not a good idea." One of the soldiers warned, lifting his weapon and training it towards the figure in the centre of the half circle. When he snarled, the rest of the soldiers raised their guns and shouted for the Doctor to get behind them.

"Put your guns down!" She yelled, holding up a hand. "I'll be alright." When none of the military personnel listened, Christine turned towards the commander and nodded, "Trust me. He'll go after your men way before he'll go after me. Put. Your. Guns. Down." When she saw the nod from the commander and the loud sound of more than a dozen guns being uncooked and lowered, Christine continued her slow approach to the man.

She made eye contact with him and then crouched down low, leaning to the left to peak at the small child hidden behind his large frame. She smiled when the child leaned out, copying her movements.

"Jesus Christ." The Commander breathed. "Stand down, there's a child in the mix."

She could feel the agitation surrounding the large male in front of her. She could hear the deep, animalistic grumbles that resonated in his chest. But it didn't scare her. Not really. Though she had never been this close to a living mutated, she had learned all that she could from reports written shortly after they went underground. "It's okay, we're not here to hurt you." She said holding out her hand, still smiling.

The man's grip on the child tightened, but it wasn't enough to stop her from wiggling out of his grasp and out into the open; into the reach of the stranger. "No!" He yelled taking a protective step forward but stopping when the unified sound of raising guns filled the air around them.

"I said stand down!" The commander yelled, practically spitting into his hazmat helmet.

The child seemed to freeze for a moment, looking back at the large male before taking hold of the Doctor's hand. "That's a good girl." Christine couldn't help the large smile that graced her lips. It had been years since she had seen a child. "Aren't you beautiful," she ran her gloved hand over the girls dirty blond hair, "What's your name, Sweetie?"

"Hannah." The young girl said giggling at the compliment.

"What a lovely name. How old are you, Hannah?" The Doctor booped the child on the nose.

"I'm six."

"Is that your daddy over there?" Christine glanced towards the large man a few feet away. The resemblance between the two was uncanny.

Hannah shook her head, "No, silly. That's my uncle Steve." The young girl said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, well he seems very protective of you." When the girl nodded in conformation Christine continued, "What happened, Hannah, where are the others?"

"The Damned saw us and I got separated from our pack. I was so scared I hid under that car," she pointed to a dilapidated blue Toyota, "and uncle Steve came to look for me and then they showed up."

"I'm so sorry, my guys didn't scare you, did they?" The Doctor took hold of the child's hands and gave them a squeeze when she nodded. "They're not so scary." She leaned in closer to the girl, "I'll tell you a secret, okay? They're more afraid of you than you should be of them."

Hannah gave the other woman a strange look before giggling, "That's silly!"

Christine laughed with the girl before nodding, "You're absolutely right." Standing, she let go of the child and held out her hand for Hannah to take, "Do you think you could introduce me to your uncle?"

Before the child could answer, her name was called from somewhere in the distance. "Momma!" She exclaimed rushing towards her uncle. "Uncle Steve, it's Momma!"

Steve bent down and took hold of the child, embracing her. Thank goodness she hadn't been hurt. If she had been... He looked at the strange woman in the white suit. He looked to the left, spotting two figures. He scented the air and heaved a sigh of relief, Buck had come with Abby so she wouldn't be alone with Hannah on the streets. "I need to you walk, very slowly towards your momma and Buck, okay? Don't look back, Sweetheart, you hear me?" Steve gave the girl a stern look and embraces her once more when she nodded, clearly confused.

"You're not coming, uncle Steve?" He shook his head no and stood, giving the small child a push towards her mother.

"I'm sending her to her mother." He said in an authoritative voice. "Do what you will with me, but leave her out of it." He looked past the woman standing in front of him to the large male in black behind her. He assumed that he was their leader and when he nodded, Steve raised his hands.

"Steve, was it?" His eyes flickered towards the woman and he grit his teeth, wanting nothing more than to rip her throat out for touching the child without his permission.

"You don't get to address me, beta." He looked towards the trio and watched as they hurried away from the group of strangers. Good. Steve thought as his jaw clenched and the muscles in his legs tightened, ready to spring on the woman. He didn't want Hannah to see what he was about to do.

She gave him an odd look before continuing, "You can put your hands down, we're not going to shoot you.." Before she could finish what she was saying, the large male lunged at her. Christine stumbled back and fell to the ground. Her breath caught in her throat as she closed her eyes. She waited for the feeling of his body crashing into hers, but when it didn't come, she opened her eyes shocked at the scene in front of her. Steve was on his knees, a hand cupped to his neck and his eyes glossy.

He looked at the woman and cocked his head to the side, "What in the…" He didn't finish. In fact, he pitched forward, completely unconscious.

The Doctor scrambled to her knees and hastily crawled her way over to his motionless body, removing the hand placed to his neck. She sighed in relief at the dart protruding from his neck. She was glad that it wasn't a bullet. He was the first live specimen they had encountered since the beginning of the end and if she had been the cause of his death, she'd never forgive herself. Christine checked his pulse before looking over her shoulder at the Commander; he was still holding her tranquillizer gun aimed at the male on the ground. "We need to get him back to the lab as quickly as we can. We do not want him to wake while we travel!" She said standing quickly as a number of soldiers struggled to carry Steve's limp body.

"Close call, Doc." Commander Thomson said as she walked towards him. "Though you said he'd go for my men over you."

Christine chortled, "Your men didn't touch the child. I did. I was the bigger threat." She looked at the man beside her and bent to gather her forgotten field kit, "Let's not tell the General what happened here. You know how he gets." She slapped the Commander on the shoulder before walking towards the military truck.

"You got it Doc," Thomson said, readjusting his weapon and gripping the dart gun tighter and following behind the woman.


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as Christine emerged from the decontamination zone, she was approached by the General's secretary. He wanted to see her immediately and, no doubt, discuss what they had found and brought back to the underground city. Pinning back her hair back, the woman walked behind Louise. She didn't want to waste any more time. She just wanted to get to the lab and test the Mutated man's blood. Perhaps he had proteins and cultures that could help them find a vaccine. Perhaps they could find a cure for the Infected or a much more humane way to put them down. Lost in thought, the Doctor bumped into the plump older woman and apologized quickly before opening the door to the General's office. "You wanted to see me?"

Standing behind a large wooden desk, back towards the door was the General. "I did. Louise, please close the door. We need to speak privately." When the older man heard the door close he looked over his shoulder at the Doctor, his expression giving nothing away. "I hear that you've found something quite interesting topside."

"We have and if you hadn't been in such a rush to check in on me, I could be in the lab as we speak. I could give you the answers that you're itching to ask." Christine placed her hands on her hips and muttered a quiet curse. The General turned to look at her fully, his ageing, stoic face changing into a slightly less so stoic face.

"You're just like your mother, Christine. Always searching for the answer to questions no one has asked yet." The older man took a few steps towards the younger woman.

She rolled her eyes. Of course, she was like her mother. There was no way in hell that she was anything like her father. He was cold, detached, ruthless, and a pain in the ass. "Are we finished?" She asked tossing her hands into the air, "As you can see, I'm fine. I came back in one piece." The General shook his head and sat at his desk instead of approaching the woman. Christine waited for a formal dismissal before exiting the office and making her way to her room. She felt grimy and needed a shower before entering the lab. It would help her focus on the task before her. Pulling her ID badge from her cargo pant pocket, she placed it on the scanner outside of her room. At the sound of a familiar beep, the Doctor trudged into the small room and sat on her minimalist bed. "Who the hell does he think he is, pulling me aside like that when he knows I have work to do." She complained to no one. Bending down, she unlaced her combat boots and tugged off her clothes before storming into the equally small bathroom. "God, sometimes I wish…Urgh!" She exclaimed when the cold water hit her skin, "Wrong tap!" Christine shook her head at herself and threaded her fingers through her damp hair. _You really need to stop talking to yourself, it's not healthy._

Finally feeling like herself, the Doctor made her way through the military part of underground New York and into the section designated to the sciences. She shoved her hands into the large pockets of her lab coat and entered her comfort zone; her lab. "Hey, Bruce. Did you get any samples from the Mutated?" She asked coming to stand next to the man whom she shared the lab with.

The greying brunet jumped away from his station. "D-don't do that! You startled me." He adjusted his glasses, "I did and you will never believe what his results look like." Standing, Bruce reached for a black tablet and handed it to the woman, a smirk on his lips.

"This can't be right." She started, "Are you sure these are his? They're completely…"

"Normal." Dr. Banner finished shaking his head and ripping off his glasses, "They are completely normal. It's as if he remained unchanged by the pathogen."

Christine gave her lab partner a look of confusion and determination, "That can't be. The numbers from the specimens, in the Beginning, are drastically different from control samples. Run them again. There has to be some…"

"Dr. Giordano, I have. I've run them half a dozen times and each time the result is the same. Either his body has adapted to being topside or…." He didn't have to say it because she was thinking it.

"The numbers from the Beginning are wrong. Someone doctored them, why?" Her grip on the tablet tightened, "Why would someone do that?" Without a second thought, Christine quickly left the lab. Despite Bruce calling for her to come back, she continued to hurry towards the observation cells. She needed to see him. She needed to get some answers. There were too many thoughts rushing through her mind to be of any use in the lab. Dr. Banner could handle it without her. He was much better at quieting intrusive thoughts and theories.

"Doc, we haven't fully cleared him yet." Commander Thomson said as the woman approached a large door. "Doc, I can't let you in there…Doc!"

She held her ID card to the scanner and when the door opened with a whir, she stormed into the observation room. "You can lecture me later on protocol, Thomson. I just need you and your men to leave." When the Commander gave Christine a disapproving look, she held up her tablet. "I need him to answer a few questions and he looks like the type to not do so in the presence of military men." Commander Thomson opened his mouth to object, but was cut off by the woman sighing, "Look, as long as he remains inside of the cell, I'll be just fine. Watch from behind the mirror if you must. But Jared, I need you and your men to leave us alone."

Clearly uncomfortable with the situation and the informal use of his first name, the Commander motioned for his men to vacate the observation room and then began to leave, "I'll be right there, Doc, and I'm coming in if I don't like how things are progressing. Understand?" He said, pointing to the two way mirror on the left side of the room before the door closed with another whir.

Christine took a deep breath before moving closer to the clear containment cell. Steve was pacing back and forth. _Like a caged animal._ She thought. Stopping a few feet away from the man, the Doctor cleared her throat, "I hope the cell is comfortable. It's hardly been used."

"It's just fine." He growled, "If you like being trapped." He didn't stop pacing. He couldn't. It was the only thing keeping him from losing control. Steve had woken up in the see-through cage, disorientated and feral. They had drugged him. They had stripped him of his defences and it pissed him off. How was he supposed to protect his family? Yes, the pack had more than enough alphas to make sure that they were safe from the Damned. But that didn't mean they didn't need him. He was one of the only prime alphas; the true leaders of the pack; the strongest. Again he growled. Steve hated that the beta male had a quick trigger finger. Otherwise, the strange woman would be dead.

He finally looked towards the newcomer and stilled. It was her. The woman who placed her muddy scent on Hannah. He surveyed the woman. She was smaller when she wasn't wearing the bulky hazmat suit and she looked like a real Doctor in her teal scrubs and lab coat. That's what the soldiers had called her, 'Doc'.

"If it's alright with you Mr..."

"Rogers." She was baiting him. Trying to make herself seem like less of a threat. But it wouldn't work. It would never work.

"...Mr. Rogers, I'd like to ask you a few questions about your condition." She continued, not missing a beat. "How long have you been topside?" Christine wanted to say different, but according to his labs, he wasn't, necessarily, different.

"Since the Beginning." Steve snorted in disgust, "How long have you been underground, Doctor..."

"Giordano. Dr. Giordano and if you don't mind, I'd like to ask the questions not answer them." The woman stared at the man behind the plastic wall of the cell, her expression neutral. "Now, what can you tell me about your condition? How did you survive the contagion and not become one of the Infected?" She couldn't help bombarding him with questions. It's what she had been forced to do growing up in her mother's lab. Ask questions until the solution had presented itself. She had hoped that he would give her what she wanted, an answer to everything. But what she didn't expect was the annoyance that flashed across his otherwise unreadable features.

Steve shook his head in disbelief, "You think this," he placed a hand on his chest, "is some sort of..."

"Contagion, you're correct." The woman standing in front of him finished for him, her eyes never leaving his form.

"You've got to be joking. You're joking right?" Steve ran a hand through this hair and heaved an irritated sigh, "That's all you scientists ever think about. That there has to be some other, tangible explanation for what has happened. But there isn't. It's evolution."

At this, Christine scoffed. "I can assure you that it is most definitely not evolution." She argued.

"Why? Because your DNA hasn't changed?" He was starting to get angry now, so angry that, had there not been a clear wall between them, Steve would have pulled the tablet from the woman's hands and smashed it against the nearest concrete wall.

"No, because theirs hasn't." Looking down briefly, the woman began to tap furiously at the tablet in her hands until the wall of his cell was covered in videos and pictures of the Damned, their faces long and gaunt, jowls sagging and teeth blunt, stained grey. Technically, the Infected were still biologically human. But everything that made a human, well, a human was gone. "You see, though they appear something less than human, their DNA has the same markers as ours, or rather mine and everyone in this underground city." Christine watched as his face contorted into disgust and sheer anger. "We know that the viscous liquid that pours from their mouth and nose contains some sort of virus, infecting any and all that come into contact with it. But you already knew that, judging from your expression. A smear on the skin won't cut it, no it needs to enter the bloodstream. Whether that is through a break in the skin, a mucous membrane or…" The woman paused for a moment, "Or through other nefarious means."

He was forced to watch, to listen to, groups of his people being attacked by the grotesque creatures, their maws oozing black, viscous goo. He was forced to watch as the once human entities slaughtered dozens of men, forcibly took women, and violently turned children, spewing the black goo into their faces. "What does that have to do with me and my pack." He asked clenching his fists into tight balls.

"You and your 'pack' managed to avoid this fate and you continue to do so. You seem like a smart man, Mr. Rogers. I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this." Christine gave the large man a few seconds to respond and when he didn't, she sighed and continued, "Clearly, whatever caused the Infected to change happened to the rest of the people topside, just on a lesser scale. Perhaps it's a different contagion or virus…" Her eyes flickered to the gruesome videos and then back to Steve. "What we want to know is why? Why are you and the others so different from the Infected?"

Steve turned away from the videos. It made him angrier than he was before. Knowing that these beasts were killing and taking his family set him on edge. Which is exactly what the woman wanted. She wanted him to feel weak, powerless. His nostrils flared and his muscles begged for the stretch that only the hunt and kill could give. He had to focus. He couldn't lose control; couldn't give her a show. Taking a deep breath, the alpha male unclenched his fists and looked over his shoulder. Making eye contact with the Doctor, Steve said, in a low and guttural voice, "Enough."

Christine would never admit, nor would she let it show, that he frightened her. She didn't have to be one of them to feel the anger and irritation rolling off of him in waves large enough to capsize a boat. With trembling fingers, she muted the videos. "Tell me again that this has nothing to do with a contagion." Steeling her nerves, the woman walked closer to the large see-through cell, the tablet held tightly against her chest.

Steve watched her intently, barely noticing the tremor in her hand. He smirked before turning to face the woman completely. "It's. Not. A. Contagion." With each word he spoke, the alpha took a step closer to the woman on the other side of the wall. Each time he did so, Steve noticed, she involuntarily flinched. He knew she was frightened of him. He could smell her fear through the plastic walls that separated them. "Is this what you really wanted to know, Dr. Giordano or is there something else you wanted to know?" Inhaling deeply, Steve's mouth twitched in understanding. "How are your birth numbers, Dr. Giordano? Low I suspect?" He spoke before she had the chance to.

"What does that have to..." To say that she was shocked was an understatement. How did an outsider, a Mutated, know about the decrease in birth rates?

"That's why you've brought me here, isn't it? To see if there is an issue with our fertility." Steve smirked when her eyes grew wide with confusion. "Well, I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with me." Sure, he was getting cocky, but how could he not? They had taken him, knowing that he was a prime alpha—that he was top shelf material. "But that doesn't mean we're not suffering. Our last pup was born 5 years ago." Placing his hands on the clear wall, Steve leaned in close to the woman, "When was yours?"

Christine nearly dropped her tablet and unconsciously placed a hand on her abdomen. Did he know? Of course, he knew, he was a Mutated individual and they always knew. She didn't miss the primal look in his eyes as they flickered from the hand pressed to her womb to her shocked face. She definitely didn't miss the grin that spread across his face when she stumbled backward, tripping over her own feet as she hurried to leave the room.

"Does he know?" Steve yelled at her retreating form, clearly pleased with the reaction he had pulled from the Doctor. He was surprised when she stopped suddenly at the door to the room, her hand hovering over the card reader.

"He's dead." Christine willed her voice not to crack as she spat out the words. She didn't look back when a low growl came from the man behind her, instead, she pressed her ID badge to the scanner and exited the white room, clearly shaken.

Pushing off of the wall, Steve sauntered towards the built-in plastic bed. He forced himself to sit down on it. He should have known. He should have used that information against her when she had Hannah in her grasp. He should have bargained for their lives over hers. But he hadn't known. He was so riled up that the pungent smell hadn't broken his defensive mindset. Steve had been so focused on protecting the child that he hadn't noticed that the Doctor was a woman until she had spoken and took hold of his niece. Though Hannah wasn't actually his niece, all of the children in his pack called him uncle. They were a family after all.

Looking around the cell, Steve noticed that it was pretty well furnished. It didn't have the worn comfort of home, but it had all of the necessities. To his immediate right was a wall that separated his cell from another, identical one. Every piece of furniture in the clear box was transparent and built into the walls. Everything except the walls that surrounded what Steve imagined to be a small bathroom. They were opaque offering the smallest amount of privacy.

It wasn't until the door to the room outside of his cell opened that Steve realized that he was still in the clothes he had been captured in. The alpha stood and stalked towards the front of his cell, jaw clenched. Before him, stood one of the military men from before, the one he had assumed was in charge of the battalion. Judging from the look on the beta male's face, he was just as angry as Steve was.

"Place the clothes you're wearing in the drawer in the bathroom and change into these." Commander Thompson said as a small hatch opened in the wall of the cell. He slipped the folded grey pants and white shirt into the hatch before continuing. "You won't be getting them back. They'll be burned with the rest of your contaminated belongings." The man smirked when he saw the Mutated man's nostrils flare. Thomson began to walk away, stopping briefly to look over his shoulder, "Oh and one more thing." His face became void of all emotion, "If you ever try to touch the Doc again, I'll put you down myself and it won't be pretty."

Steve growled as the beta crossed the outer room and exited. The bastard wouldn't have the chance to shoot him again. Steve would be the one to put the other man down and it would definitely not be pretty. Slamming his fist on the front wall of the cell, the alpha male grit his teeth. He needed a plan. He needed to get out of the underground city. Reaching for the now unfolded set of clothes on the floor, Steve walked to the small bathroom and pushed open the handless door. It was just as small as he thought. Across from the door was a small, see-through sink, to the left was the toilet and facing that was the shower. Each amenity was built into the wall and smaller than what he was used to. Dr. Giordano had said that it was hardly used but it looked brand new. Steve wondered if he was the first to be held in the cell, there was no way that something this new had been in use since the Beginning. There would have been dust and obvious signs of wear and tear. But there wasn't. Every surface was pristine and it set the man on edge. It felt clinical. _Sterile_. Steve thought as he placed the set of clothes on the lid of the toilet and crammed his large frame into the small cubical.


	3. Chapter 3

Christine looked up at her lab partner. "I can't take a break. I have to keep looking… I have to…"

"What you have to do is go and take a nap. Exhaustion is not good for the lab or," The older man looked down at her abdomen briefly, "it will still be here when you wake up."

She shook her head in discontent. "We need more samples from an Infected. All of the ones we have are useless." picking up a rack of blood vials, the Doctor stood and made her way over to one of the many sample coolers. "I'll go and see if Commander Thomson has men topside. Maybe they could gather some more." As much as she wanted to argue with Bruce, Christine knew that he was right, exhaustion bred mistakes and they could not afford to have any made.

"Take a nap, Dr. Giordano, you hear me? Don't do anything stupid."

She looked over her shoulder and smiled, "Of course not." With that, Christine left the lab and slowly made her way to Commander Thomson's office. Knocking on the door, she let herself in, "I was thinking that we could go topside today."

Shocked at the sudden intrusion, Thomson looked up from his desk to the woman. "Well hello to you too and absolutely not. There have been too many Infected running around to safely escort you up."

"That's perfect! We need more samples." The Doctor smiled before walking closer to his desk and sitting on the edge of it, hands in the pockets of her coat.

"Didn't we just gather samples last week?" The Commander placed the report he was reading down on the desk and stood, joining the woman on the desk.

"We did. But they're no good. You know how long the virus lasts without a host." Christine smirked, "Come on, it'll be fine. The sooner we can figure out an antiviral the sooner Subject 2924 can be released."

Thomson grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest, "You're a pain in the ass, you know that Doc?"

"I know. But you love it, otherwise, your job would be boring." She jumped up and stood in front of the Commander, "You can even call the shots." He shook his head at her and she grinned, "So, see you in 30?"

"Fine. Just…just get the hell out of my office." Turning on her heel, the Doctor rushed from the small office causing the Commander to heave a sigh and push off of the desk. He found it hard to say no to her and he knew that she would be the death of him. Infected he could handle but the wrath of the General… Thomson shuttered at the thought of what the General would do to him if anything happened to the Doctor. Instead, he busied himself with preparations for going topside. They'd need all the help they could get.

* * *

Once again, Christine sat in the back of a military truck with soldiers all around her. Thomson had doubled the number of men that would escort them to recently attacked areas. She hated driving through the deserted streets of Manhattan. It reminded her of the world before everything went to shit. It reminded her of everything she had lost. The Doctor tried to focus on the task at hand. She tried to push back the exhaustion that nagged at the back of her eyes.

"Doc, Commander Thomson told me to keep you close." The soldier sat beside her said, tightening the strap of his gun. "It's been bad out there these past few days. So if you see one of those bastards, you tell me and I'll put it down."

Christine nodded as best she could in her heavy hazmat helmet. "You got it. Just remember that I need the face intact. The glands that produce the contagion are in their jaws, so do not damage the face."

The truck came to a stop and the back door opened, "Look alive people, it's show time." The Commander's voice sounded through the communication earpiece Christine and the rest of the soldiers were wearing.

Hopping out of the truck, the woman looked around the street for any evidence of an Infected. "I think I see something promising. Follow me." She said walking towards a line of black on the crumbling sidewalk. As she climbed the curb, the Doctor noticed a body lying in the middle of an ally way. "Commander Thomson, it looks like we have a body. I can't tell if it's a Mutated or an Infected. I need to get closer." Before the Commander could give her orders, Christine started down the alleyway. She stopped a few feet from the body and shook out her hands trying to calm her nerves. It hadn't occurred to her that this could be a decoy until she was more than halfway through the alley. Taking a deep breath the woman continued to make her way to the downed man. Kneeling slowly beside the body, she turned his head towards her. He was a dead Mutated. "Commander Thomson, it's a deceased Mutated male." Christine said as she pulled the loose scarf from around his neck with shaking hands. "Looks like his throat was slashed." Standing, she turned around looking for a sign of any other life form. "There's no sign of the attacker, but the body is covered in contagion…."

"….Doc…attack…you need to…"

Panicked, the woman furiously looked about her once again, "Commander, you're breaking up! Can you hear me? What happened? Commander Thomson? Jared!" She hadn't heard any of the gurgling screams that came just before an Infected attack so it had to be the Mutated. Perhaps they thought that they had killed the man lying at her feet. However, this thought was cut short when the scream echoed through the small alleyway.

Running as fast as she could, the Doctor didn't chance a glance behind her. All she knew was that she needed to hide, to get out of sight. If she didn't… Christine ducked behind a rusted dumpster. She hoped that the Infected hadn't seen her. Hadn't _smelled_ her. She tried to concentrate on the sound of approaching feet. But the only thing that she could hear was the roaring of her heart in her ears. She closed her eyes briefly trying to calm her breathing. At the sound of another loud and very close scream, the woman opened her eyes and began to walk back towards the middle of the dumpster. She heard a rip but ignored it. She needed to get away from the Infected.

When it's gaunt and placid face appeared around the side of the dumpster in front of her, Christine's breath caught in her throat and her heart sank. She was going to die. She hadn't been given a weapon because she was supposed to stay with her escort and she hadn't. A body was more important than her safety and for that thought, she was now kicking herself. _You can't freeze up, Christine. You. Need. To. Move!_ At the third deafening scream, the woman took off in the other direction, hoping that she would be fast enough to get back to the truck.

The Doctor was so focused on making it out the alley alive, that she failed to notice the pile of debris in her path. Pain shot up her arms and through her ankle as she hit the ground. She cried out. She tried to stand but couldn't. Christine turned towards the fast approaching Infected, her heart hammering in her chest. She could smell the sour odour of the contagion. She could smell the blood of the corpse a few feet away. She could taste the ting of bile on her tongue. The Doctor closed her eyes. She wasn't going to make it.

Christine heard a shot. And then another and another until the sound of a body hitting the ground was ringing in her ears.

"Doc. Are you okay? Doc! Christine answer me!" She flinched at the rough touch to her arm. "Jesus Christ, you're bleeding. We need to get you out of here before those assholes come back." Commander Thomson pulled the shocked woman up, noticing that she was favouring one ankle over the other. "Can you walk?" He asked holding onto the sides of her helmet. "Christine, I need you to pull it together. We have to make it back to the truck. Can you do that?"

She didn't know what she could do. She hadn't really been listening to the Commander. The only thing she could hear was the sound of that god-awful screech and the loud thump of a body hitting the ground. She had tunnel vision. The only thing she could see was the corpse of the Mutated male except it was her instead. She was the one who died.

She stumbled as Commander Thomson forced her to walk. Not only did her ankle hurt but so did her arm. Looking down the Doctor noticed that her hazmat suit was ripped and covered in both her own blood and the black tar-like blood of the Infected. Her suit had been breeched and she couldn't quite remember when it had happened. Through unfocused eyes, Christine looked to the man beside her and nearly began to cry. Thomson had saved her life; saved her from… When they reached the truck over half of the soldiers were missing and she assumed that the majority of them had been killed during the attack.

"Up you get Doc." The Commander said as he handed her off to one of the surviving soldiers. "Easy there Crawford, she's in shock and her ankle is injured." She looked at Thomson, her face completely void of emotion and when he tried to leave, her grip on his arm tightened. Sighing the Commander jumped into the back of the truck, "I've got it, Crawford, you head up front and get us back safely." With a 'yes sir', the younger soldier exited the truck and jogged to the front of the vehicle. Commander Thomson wrapped an arm around Christine's shoulders and pulled her into his side, their helmets bumping. "I thought I lost you Doc." He said as the rest of the military men piled in with them. "I thought you were a goner."

She wanted to apologize for not following his orders to stick close to her escort. She wanted to thank him for saving her. But she couldn't. It was as if the words she wanted to say caught in her throat. So instead, Christine held onto the man tighter.


	4. Chapter 4

Steve refused to sleep since that first day. He refused to let them get the jump on him. Again. Though he knew that there were other ways that they could get what they wanted from him — drugging his food or contaminating his air with sleeping gas — the alpha couldn't completely let his guard down. So when the large door of the outer room opened, he was on the defensive. However, when Steve saw the Doctor and what she was wearing — an outfit similar to his — he relaxed slightly. Something had happened. Something bad. The alpha watched in silence as one of the soldiers opened the door to the cell next to his, paying close attention to how the man did so. Without so much as a grumble of disagreement, Dr. Giordano entered the cell and stood just inside of the door as it closed silently behind her.

"You know I wouldn't do this if I didn't have to, Doc." Commander Thomson said, his voice betraying his sympathy and regret. When she turned to look at the man he continued, "The General should be here soon."

Christine nodded. She had been lead to decontamination showers upon arrival, suit and all. It was safer, they had deduced, to rinse off the contagion rather than risk the goo entering the wound on her arm. After that, she had been allowed to shower by herself, for as long as she needed. Had she not been who she was, this would not have happened. She would have been tranquillized and placed in a containment cell, just like Subject 2924 had been. If she hadn't pushed to got topside none of the soldiers would have lost their lives. She looked down at her trembling hands and clenched them.

"Christine."

"General." She said looking up at the older man standing in front of her.

Shaking his head, the General sighed. "Drop the formality, now is not the time." He raised his hand when she tried to argue.

Instead, she breathed, "Yes, Dad." The Doctor couldn't look at her father. She couldn't stand seeing the disappointment etched into his features. He always looked at her with disappointment, but this time it was different.

"What you did was careless and absolutely stupid, Christine. I can not lose my best scientist to a rookie mistake." His jaw clenched.

"I did what I had to do to survive." The woman countered.

"If you hadn't run off on your own..." Christine could tell that her father was angry and that he was holding it back with every bone in his body. "You're lucky Thomson got to you when he did or things could have gone a lot worse."

Her jaw began to tremble. She knew that she had been stupid. "You think I don't know that?" She knew that she shouldn't have run off. Thomson had warned her that there had been a rise in Infected activity and in her fatigued state believed that they would be able to handle it. "I could have died… I could have…" Christine took a deep breath.

"You should have listened to orders."

She scoffed. "Dad I'm not…"

"Your suit was breached, Christine." The General threw up a hand and pointed a finger at his daughter.

"If becoming Mutated is the price I have to pay for my life than I will gladly do so." She bit her bottom lip to keep from crying. She hadn't cried in years but there as something about being chastised by her father that made her feel like a child again.

"You're just like your mother. She was arrogant and took her life too lightly." He spat, jabbing his finger at the woman.

"I hope to god that I'm like my mother, it's better than being like you." Christine turned around. She refused to let her father see her cry; she refused to let the rest of the crew see her cry. Wrapping her arms around her midsection, she swiped at her cheeks.

Steve inched his way closer to the wall connecting the Doctor's cell to his. Something she had said confused him and he needed to know what she meant. He watched as the General shook his head and turned to leave the room, the rest of the soldiers following after him. When the outer room was clear, the alpha looked back towards Christine. "What did you mean when you said you would have died?" Steve asked placing his hands on his hips.

Startled, the woman looked at the man in the cell next to her. She had forgotten that he was there. "When human's, the ones who are not part of your pack, are infected, their bodies shut down. Liver failure, heart failure, respiratory failure. All within a matter of minutes. Their death is slow and painful." Sniffling, Christine looked down at the man's chest, her eyes unfocused. "Whatever makes you different allows for the Infected's contagion to change you into one of them. But for us, we don't have that." She shook her head.

"I take it you've seen someone die." Steve walked closer to the wall, his head tilted to the side slightly, in thought. He couldn't imagine losing those around him. Sure, when his people were turned into Damned, they were essentially gone, but he knew that they were still alive regardless of it being a pitiful existence.

The Doctor hobbled over to the connecting wall and pressed her back against it. She sighed and began to slide down it until she was sitting on the floor. "I have." She really didn't want to talk about it, but knew that he wouldn't stop asking questions about it.

Following her lead, Steve turned and slid down the wall. He turned his head slightly to look at the woman on the other side of the wall and licked his lips before speaking, "Was he special?" His voice cracked and he didn't know why. There were knots in his stomach that hadn't been there before; they hadn't been there when she had forced him to look at images of the Damned and they most certainly hadn't been there when he tried to attack her while they were topside. Steve wanted to blame it on the intimacy of their current situation or the fact that he could smell her through the plastic wall. But he knew that it wasn't connected to those reasons.

"No. Not really. We were never serious and we both knew it didn't mean anything, you know? Just two people looking for comfort and a distraction in each other." Once again Christine sniffled and leaned her head against the wall, closing her eyes. She knew what was coming next.

"Was he…" Steve's fists clenched and he ground his teeth. There was something wrong with him. This was none of his business but he still wanted, needed, to know.

She tried not to cry but failed. She hated showing just how weak she was, especially in front of someone she didn't know. "Our last birth was nearly eight years ago and our last pregnancy was three. So you don't think that it could happen to you and you make bad decisions, indulge a little too much." She nearly laughed, "Six weeks later you're sick to your stomach and you think that it's the stomach bug that's been going around. But deep down, you know it's not and you know that you are, but hope that you're not. Something like this never ends well. You don't want to tell him and you know that you have to because, after everything, you've managed to do something that has been impossible for years." Christine placed her hand on her abdomen as her bottom lip trembled. "So when the call comes in, you never expect that there would be an attack; that you'd be the attending. That you'd have to be the one to call it and all you want to do is hold him. But you can't. You have to wear a damn suit because he's spewing up tar-like blood and is covered in black goo and didn't deserve…" Her voice is low and she's not sure if he heard her. Wiping at her face, the Doctor struggled to stand, her sprained ankle fighting against her as more and more pressure was applied to it.

Hearing the scuffle of shoes, Steve stood and turned to completely look at Dr. Giordano. She hadn't made it very far when standing. She was bent at the waist, her breathing rushed and her sobs silent. Something inside of him broke. He wanted to be the one to comfort her. He wanted to wrap the Doctor in his arms and hold her until she was fine; until she told him to let go. Placing his hand flat against where her back would have met the wall, Steve knew that there was something incredibly wrong with him. His instincts told him that she was not his; that she was not an omega and that he needed to get to his pack. But he didn't care that she wasn't like him, a female was in distress and there was a small part of him that needed to comfort her.

They stood like that until Christine was calm enough to stand fully. She looked over her shoulder at Steve. He could see the breakdown induced exhaustion in her eyes and he dropped his hand. He wanted to tell her that everything was fine, that she wasn't going to change. That she was still herself. But he couldn't seem to break the silence that surrounded them. Instead, the alpha watched the beta limp to the small bed in the opposite corner and lay down, her arms wrapped around her midsection. Feeling the familiar tingle of anger, Steve began to pace. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to watch someone special suffer and know that there is nothing you can do. Or to carry the burden of knowing that what had been created, something so hard to do, held no hope for a positive outcome.

Pausing for a moment Steve looked over at the woman. He had been rude to her without knowing anything, he had wanted to kill her; get revenge on her for touching Hannah and taking him. But he finally knew why she had done so. It wasn't just because he was a prime alpha. No. He was an inkling of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation; he was the answer to all of her questions. Making his way over to the small bed, Steve sat down and leaned his head against the wall. He wasn't sure what he hated more, being trapped in the underground city away from his family or wanting to stay with Christine.


	5. Chapter 5

Christine woke with a start, her body slick with sweat and her breathing laboured. She had dreamt of the Infected man who had chased her. However, instead of escaping death, she was met with it. She had been forced to watch as the Infected lunged at her and pinned her down, spewing black vicious goo into her face, her mouth, her eyes. She had felt as if she was suffocating. She had been suffocating while every visible mucus membrane was tainted with the dark liquid.

The Doctor closed her eyes and sat up, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She couldn't get the image of the mangled and gaunt face out of her mind. Christine swung her legs over the edge of the bed and hissed when her ankle took the brunt of her weight. Standing, the woman slowly walked over to the small bathroom and turned on the sink's faucet, splashing her face with cold water. She looked at herself in the mirror and saw someone she didn't recognize. Perhaps it was because of the purple glow of the lights or the predicament she found herself in. Whatever the reason, she may never truly understand it.

"You won't change." When Christine hobbled out of the small cubicle and looked at the man in the cell adjacent her, he stopped pacing. Steve couldn't take the anxiety rolling off of her. He couldn't take hearing her whimper in her sleep. "You're fine."

"How do you know that?" She asked walking closer to their joining wall.

Steve watched her every move, the way she limped, the way she held her injured arm slightly higher than the other. He licked his lips, "You haven't had any of the symptoms." He couldn't tell her that she smelled the same as she always had. That there was nothing different about her. She would have changed in the Beginning if it was going to happen.

Christine looked at Steve confused, "Symptoms? What are you talking about?" None of the reports from the Beginning had mentioned anything about there being symptoms when becoming Mutated. It had been a waiting game in the Beginning, especially with those who became Infected. So they, the scientific and military communities, assumed that it would be the same for the Mutated.

"It starts with a headache that you can't shake and after days of not being able to sleep or eat or sit anywhere other than in the dark, the pain migrates from your head to your chest. Finally, it spreads throughout your limbs and that's just the start of it." Steve explained, folding his arms across his chest. "I thought you would have known that. You are, after all, the lead scientist in charge of the cure." He cocked an eyebrow, "Don't you need to know the cause and symptoms of something in order to cure it, Dr. Giordano?" Steve knew that he was teasing her, but it made him happy. It helped him to relax and let his guard down. Seeing the woman in a prison identical to his own brought the alpha joy and comfort. The soldiers wouldn't try to harm or kill him so long as their lead scientist was being held in the same room as their target. They wouldn't touch him until she was finished with him and while she was stuck in a cell, she wouldn't be able to get anything done.

The Doctor's brow knit together in frustration and anger. She wasn't mad at Steve, she was mad at the fact that he was right. That he knew more about the Mutated than she did, though it was to be expected. He had, after all, become one and she had remained normal. "If you knew this," She started, her hand balling into a fist, "why didn't you tell me in the first place? I could be.." without thinking, Christine slammed her fist against the wall. "Goddamnit!"

Steve's mouth twisted into a smirk. He liked this new version of the Doctor. He liked how raw and primal she was when her feathers were ruffled. It made him feel like he was home, surrounded by his omegas and the rest of the alphas. "I assumed you knew. It is common knowledge throughout the Mutated communities." The word left a strange taste in his mouth. They weren't _mutated_ , in fact, they were the next step in human evolution. The sooner the beta saw that, the better.

"You can tell, can't you?" She asked, trying and failing to not let his baiting effect her. "How much can you tell from a person's scent, Mr. Rogers?" She needed to calm down and the fastest way to do so was to ask questions; to gather intel.

"More than you'd think." Steve's jaw clenched as he placed his hands on his hips, something he did when his dominance was being challenged.

Christine snorted, nodding her head and making a face. "Okay. So, tell me, why did you try to kill me if you knew I was pregnant? You must have been fighting pretty hard against your instincts." She paused for a moment, sliding her hand down the separation wall, "Unless, you didn't know."

Nostrils flaring, the alpha stormed towards the woman. "How could I not know? You stink of another man's bastard pup." Growling, Steve smacked his hands onto the wall, Christine's head between them, "It's disgusting, smelling him on you. It might be faint but it's there. Tainting…" The man swallowed and took a calming breath. There was something flashing in her eyes that he couldn't quite figure out and it irked him. Steve couldn't tell what the woman was thinking, but he wanted to.

The Doctor sucked at her bottom lip, avoiding the alpha's gaze. His blue eyes were burning with frustration and it was almost too much for her to bear. Christine could see the tension in his muscles and the way they seemed to ripple. He was infuriated, that much was clear. But she couldn't figure out why. _What had set him off?_ She thought for a moment before speaking, "So you think it's disgusting? Being pregnant?"

Steve sighed and closed his eyes. "No. _His_ smell is disgusting." _This is wrong, Rogers. Incredibly wrong. You can't have her. You can't._ Maybe he had gone too long without a mate and the lack of omega touch was causing him to want what he shouldn't. If being in close proximity to the beta woman for such a short time had pushed him this far, then he didn't want to know what it would be like to have her even closer; have her touch him.

Christine's breath caught in her throat. She finally understood what was wrong. "You don't like that it's someone else's baby, do you?" When the Mutated man shook his head, eyes still closed, the Doctor stumbled back, away from the wall. In the purple light of simulated night, she fully regarded the man. He was tall and muscular with a sharp jawline concealed by a thick beard. It wasn't that she hadn't noticed that he was handsome, it was that she refused to acknowledge it. What good would it do to fancy someone she shouldn't? Still, there was something about seeing the man saturated in purple that made her heart palpitate.

His eyes fluttered opened and Steve stared at the woman, her face alight with conflicting emotions; intrigue, disgust, and want. "Mine. It should be _mine_." He growled, low and guttural. The alpha hadn't meant to say it. He hadn't meant to run a hand down the transparent wall, tracing her still form and stopping on the small bump of her abdomen. Steve hadn't meant to become so possessive of the beta, but he did. Against everything he had told himself and everything his instincts screamed, he had started to want her.

"Well. It's not and it will never be."

At the sound of her voice, Steve startled, waking from whatever trance he had been in. His chest heaved in abhorrence as he pushed off of the wall. "Dr. Giordano I don't know what…" He couldn't finish what he was trying to say. It was highly inappropriate for him to say what he had and no amount of apologizing would change that.

Christine shook her head and backed away from the wall further. The only thing she could feel was the pain from her sprained ankle shooting up her calf. She couldn't, wouldn't let herself feel the twist of excitement ground itself in her belly. It was wrong. _So wrong._ He was off limits and that's what made her want him. The Doctor sat back down on her small bed and leaned forward, head in her hands. This wasn't how things were supposed to happen. She wasn't supposed to be stuck in an observation cell next to Steve. _Subject 2924_. Christine tried to force herself to think of the man as a subject because that's what he was, after all. He was the answer to their questions, a way to live topside once more. He was not the distraction she needed, wanted, _craved_. Taking a deep breath, the woman pushed back into the bed, lying down. She needed to collect information about the Mutated and if the man deviated from her questions than she would keep him on track, regardless of how much he riled her up or surprised her. Christine closed her eyes against the neon purple light, hoping to fall asleep without seeing the gnarled jaws of the Infected and the easing the heavy feeling in her chest.


	6. Chapter 6

To say that he was exhausted was an understatement. Steve knew that, sooner or later, he would crash and he wouldn't have control over it. But that's why he refused to rest — to sleep. He needed to feel as if he was in control of something when they had taken away his ability to do so. He needed to feel as if he was still in a position of dominance when he knew that they would rather put a bullet in his skull than let him do what his instincts told him to do.

When the woman in the cell next to his heaved a loud and frustrated sigh, the alpha continued to pace around his own cell. Much like not sleeping, it was something he could control, something that helped to keep the anger at bay. Steve was angry at himself for what he had said the night before. He had let his alpha instincts get the better of him. But wasn't that what he wanted? To be able to do what his instincts told him? What he needed to? The man couldn't look at the Doctor. Every time he did he remembered the things he had said to her; the things he had thought of doing. The things he had wanted to do.

"They'll let you run yourself into the ground." Christine sat up in the small bed and ran her hands over her face. "So if I were you, I'd get some sort of rest." When the man continued to stalk about his cell, the woman gave another sigh and stood. "Look, if you want to give them what they want, then by all means, continue to exhaust yourself."

At this, Steve stopped. "What is it that _they_ want exactly?" He wanted to point out that she was one of them. That it would be better for the Doctor if he was more complaint. "What _do_ you want?"

She nearly choked on her spit. " _We_ just want to survive. Without a vaccine, we can't go topside and without a solution for the decline in birthrates, no one will survive." Standing, Christine limped towards the dividing wall. "That's what we want."

The Doctor didn't have to ask the question. Steve could hear it in her voice. What did he want? She was right, after all, they would never survive if they couldn't raise the population. That wasn't the only thing he wanted. More than anything, Steve wanted to get back to his pack. To escape and take the beta with him. Before he could say anything, the door to the outer room opened and the Commander stepped through the threshold.

"How are you doing Doc?" Thomson asked, completely ignoring the Mutated man and walking straight for the cell that housed the woman.

Christine turned towards the approaching man and smiled, slowly making her way to the front of the cell. "Fine, just wish that I could do something." When they were finally across from each other, the Doctor noticed the tablet under his arm and she looked at the man confused.

"Dr. Banner thought you might say that." Reaching forward, the Commander slid the tablet into a now open hatch in the wall of the cell, handing it off to the Doctor.

"My tablet." She looked down at the electronic, "How did the General allow this?"

Commander Thomson shrugged and placed his hands on his hips, "All I know is that I was told to give it to you."

"Leave it to Bruce to break the rules." She shook her head and held onto the tablet tighter. "Listen, Jared, I just wanted to say that I'm…"

Before she could finish the Commander held up his hand. "We would have lost men with or without you being up there. It's the fact of life, now. As much as we like to think that we've got a chance topside, we really don't. Not with those bastards lurking in the shadows." He looked at the woman before him and his heart sank. It truly pained him to see her caged like an animal. "I shouldn't have let a rookie look after you, Doc, it should have been me."

"You're damn right it should have been. You can barely handle me and yet you expected a rookie to do better?" Christine chuckled before clutching the tablet to her chest, "Tell Bruce that I owe him one." When the Commander nodded, the woman looked down at the screen of the tablet and began to tap at it.

"You got it Doc." Folding his arms across his chest, Thomson glance at his shoes and nodded, "You sure there isn't anything else I can get you?" When the Doctor shook her head, he cleared his throat and dropped his arms. "Well, if you change your mind," He smiled, "you know what to do."

Once again, Christine nodded and with that, Commander Thomson turned began to hesitantly walk out of the room. When she was sure that he was gone, the Doctor transferred the files displayed on the tablet to a small portion of the transparent wall before her. As she read through the results the woman released a shaky breath.

"What are those?" Steve asked, moving as close to the dividing wall as he could, trying to get a good look at what Christine had been looking at.

"My blood samples." She stated matter of factly. Everything felt normal when she had her tablet in hand or as normal as things could be. "I'm checking for any anomalies or changes to the cells or level of proteins." The Doctor continued to swipe through her test results and found that everything was normal. Nothing had changed after she had been exposed to whatever contagion was topside. "I wonder if it's gone? Or perhaps it has been diluted after all of these years?" She hadn't realized that she had asked these questions out loud until a loud snort sounded from behind her.

"Even after being exposed and showing no signs of infection or mutation you think its a contagion? Unbelievable." Angrily licking his lips, the alpha started to argue against this thought, once again, until something stopped him. He looked at the wall where the Doctor had her medical files on display in wonder.

She hadn't meant to stop on it, but suddenly Christine was thankful that she had. The steady wump wump of an ultrasound sounded around them. All of the tension that she had been holding in her shoulders released and the Doctor felt relieved. The baby was okay. It was more than okay from the sound of the heartbeat. She reached her hand up to touch the wall and gently slid her fingers over the grainy image of her baby. "Oh thank God." Christine breathed, her voice barely audible.

It had been years since the alpha had seen something so fragile and he felt a heaviness settle in his chest. He had to remind himself that it wasn't theirs and each time he did so, the ache in his gut worsened. "It's so…" He started, leaning his forehead against the dividing wall.

"Perfect." The woman muttered, a small smile beginning to form on her lips. She had been worried that the trauma and breach in her suit would harm the baby, but it hadn't. Regardless of the fact that she was in her second trimester, the possibility of miscarriage was present. In fact, when she had told Dr. Banner — the only person other than herself, and now the Mutated man in the cell beside hers to know — he had been shocked that the embryo had been viable. With every week that past the pair remained surprised and excited that the baby remained healthy.

 _Small. Healthy._ Steve's mouth went dry and he pushed off of the wall, making his way to the small bathroom. Turning on the faucet and cupping his hands, the alpha took long gulps of water before splashing his face with the liquid. He needed to get out of the underground city and he didn't care what it cost. He hadn't realized it before, but being around the pregnant beta suppressed the rut that he been close to. Steve could feel the tensing of his muscles as they protested against the steady flow of hormones the woman was exuberating. His need to mate was slowly changing into a need to protect and it was concerning.

Looking at his reflection did little to ease the conflicting emotions coursing through his body. He had expected to see the same, ever vigilant man he had been a week or so ago, but instead Steve saw half of that man; a shell. Maybe Christine had been right and he did need to sleep, to regain the strength and fight he had lost. Turning away from the small bathroom, the alpha slowly walked to the equally small bed and sat down, resting his head against the wall. Closing his eyes, Steve licked his dry lips and listened to the silence that had finally fallen. Though the Doctor had switched to a different file, he could still hear the soothing sound of her baby's heartbeat and it didn't take long for the alpha to fall into a deep sleep.


End file.
